Fear and Trembling

Here’s a second post on Victor J. Stenger’s book. I’ll focus on his idea of lack of structure at the universe’s beginning. I’ll then look at some of the implications of his interpretation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (Stenger, Victor J. God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does not Exist , Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2007) He is clear and easy to understand here: “At [the beginning] the universe had no structure. That meant that it had no distinguishable place, direction, or time. In such a situation, the conservation laws apply.” (131) Elsewhere he writes, “…an expanding universe could have started in total chaos and still formed localized order consistent with the second law [of thermodynamics].” (118) First, as I have noted before , there may well be structure and order in the universe that we cannot yet identify. Vast complexity is difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend. The ever increasing body of knowledge held by science is apparent in his...

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the U. S., and I wanted to offer a prayer. It is my habit to pray in the plural because I am of the firm conviction that no Christian ever prays alone . Father in Heaven, we come before you this morning in awe of Your justice, Your power, Your love, Your mercy and Your grace. We praise You for who You are as You reveal Yourself to us in your Word . We confess, Lord, that we have sinned against You, in the things we have done, the things we have thought, and the things we have said . We have sinned in doing things we should not have . We have sinned in not doing the things You would have us do . We are truly sorry, and in reverent fear of You , we humbly repent . Please forgive us. We thank You that we can be forgiven because of what Christ did for us on the cross . Give us new hearts and new lives that we may glorify You in all we think, say, and do . Help us to live each day looking backward to the cross as our hope and forward to heaven as our vision ....

I have been reading an interesting book by Victor J. Stenger that I would like to interact with over my next few posts. (Stenger, Victor J. God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does not Exist , Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2007). To quote Stenger: “The people performing the study, that is, those taking and analyzing the data, must do so without any prejudgment of how the results should come out.” (24) Is there any such thing as an unbiased person? Can anyone claim to be completely objective in his or her pursuit of truth? Greg Bahnsen notes that : …a person's most fundamental beliefs (or presuppositions) determine what he or she will accept as evidence and determine how that evidence will be interpreted. … Our presuppositions about the nature of reality and knowledge will control what we accept as evidence and how we view it. Even more interesting is Stenger’s reference to computer simulation. Computer programs help us understand “how simple systems can se...

It has been a while since I posted. This week has been National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child, the shoebox ministry of Samaritan’s Purse. I am the Area Coordinator for our part of Tennessee, and I have been spending allot of time organizing and helping at our Collection Center. If you have not heard of Samaritan’s Purse or OCC please follow the links embedded in this sentence to find out more. It’s a ministry that has worldwide impact . OCC supplied gift-filed shoeboxes to over 7.5 million children in over 90 countries last year, and I pray we do more this year. Follow this link to volunteer ; it will change your life!

In the current debate over the atonement we would do well to listen to a great commentator of old: “For this purpose, then, the ... Word of God [Christ] entered our world. In one sense, indeed, He was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without Him Who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. But now He entered the world in a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us. He saw the reasonable race, the race of men that, like Himself, expressed the Father's Mind, wasting out of existence, and death reigning over all in corruption. He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the Transgression; He saw, too, how unthinkable it would be for the law to be repealed before it was fulfilled. He saw how unseemly it was that the very things of which He Himself was the Artificer should be disappearing. He saw how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them; H...

I have been re-reading the Gospel of John lately. I like it because of the author’s obvious delight in the Person of Christ. I find an article by Craig Blomberg over at the NAMB Apologetics site to be interesting. Here’s a sample: “… a considerable number of scholars during the last half-century have pioneered what came to be known as the "new look on John," recognizing a far greater level of historical reliability and a Jewish milieu for the deeds and teachings attributed to Jesus than the first half of the twentieth century had acknowledged. Arguably, if the next half-century gave the same kind of sustained study to the remaining questionable details, the amount of general confidence in the fourth Gospel would again grow in corresponding fashion.” – Craig Blomberg John, the author of the gospel attributed to him, was the apostle who was a personal friend of Jesus. He gives many accurate details of first century Palestine, including arrangement of buildings and geography...